Thursday, April 30, 2009

1) This did not come from the Eric Croft campaign. I have it on good authority that the Croft campaign found out about this by reading Progressive Alaska.

2) The person who brought this forward does not work for Croft. She or he is not one of our progressive bloggers, but she or he is known to all of us as being very truthful. The person newly discovered the material. I have no idea how Allan Tesche got involved.

4) The Anchorage Daily News, KTUU and other media outlets were provided the same material at approximately the same time it was provided to Progressive Alaska and other on-line journals.

In sworn testimony, the 23-year-old female defendant in the case states that after her shift at Dan Sullivan's bar, she stayed another three hours with "Dan" and another female employee. While there, she took advantage of "Dan's" policy of providing after-work drinks for staff at half price. While off shift, she continued to work, helping prepare for a bar event the following evening.

Dan and the female defendant split a pitcher of beer. From the testimony, it appears somebody, possibly Dan, continued to "top off" the defendant's drink throughout the period between when the pitcher was finished and her exit to her vehicle, around 4:00 a.m.

It is unclear from the transcript as provided, whether the female employee/defendant bought her own drinks as "half-price," whether "Dan" provided the pitcher they shared, or whether, by staying after work and helping, she was still at work, or just hanging out. I'm not sure whether listening to a tape of the trial would be more clear than the transcript. Maybe we can leave that up to the mainstream media.

When she left, the defendant testified to "hugging" Dan. Whatever plans the defendant may have had for after leaving work were terminated by her arrest for a hit and run incident that had occurred on Tudor or Minnesota Drive.

She blew just under .1000, and hours later, her blood level, taken intravenously was slightly over .1000.

If "Dan" is mayoral candidate Dan Sullivan, in many states, what this woman has sworn "Dan" did could cause revocation of his liquor license. In some states, bar owners can be prosecuted for what "Dan" did - cause somebody to leave his bar drunk enough to be in a hit and run. I don't believe that is the case in Anchorage or in Alaska.

Some Taniana Elementary School 5th graders discovered this creature yesterday, attached to an intertidal rock in Jakalof Bay, near Seldovia. Judy, who spent much of the week volunteering to cook and chaperone the kids, took these pictures. The creature was attached to the rock with little suction cups on its underside.

It is, according to Judy, "about the size of a football":Two commenters recognized it as a Lumpsucker. Well named critter, eh?

[E. L. "Bob" Bartlett, in addition to being one of the creators of Alaska statehood, was one of Alaska's pioneer muckrakers.

This week, Alaska fisheries writer Stephen Taufen gave a capsule biography of that important aspect of Bartlett's legacy. It was part of an excellent, full-size article about the United Fishermen of Alaska Fisheries Hall of Fame awards, presented last week at ComFish 2009 in Kodiak.]

Bob Bartlett - "Architect of Alaska Statehood"

--- by Stephen Taufen

Pre-statehood the territory was a colonial economy that for salmon was "a legacy of Seattle and San Francisco cannery operators' unmerciful exploitation of Alaska 's fisheries." And while UFA's charter members include Bob Bartlett for "1964 Federal Legislation banning foreign fishing fleets in territorial waters," they left out the most important reason to celebrate Bartlett — his keynote address at Alaska's Constitutional Convention, a speech about building protections into Alaska's constitution to keep Alaska's "resources from falling under the control of outside interests."

In light of the privatization schemes of gifted federal quotas of fish off Alaska's shores, Bartlett would doubtlessly have refused to be on the same list as Ted Stevens, a corrupt senator who penned those Rationalization schemes that have led to overwhelming levels of foreign and outside ownership of Alaskan processing plants.

According to public sources, "Senator Edward Lewis "Bob" Bartlett served as Alaska 's Territorial Delegate to Congress from 1945-59. Following Alaska 's induction into the Union on January 3, 1959, Bartlett served as U. S. Senator until his death in 1968. The Library of Congress estimates that he had more bills passed into law than any other Member in the history of Congress."

An earlier article in AlaskaReport by Ray Metcalfe outlined Bob's message in the late-1950's. Bartlett 's speech read "A failure to write into fundamental law basic barriers to minimize fraud, corruption, non-development, and exploitation may well be viewed fifty years from now as this Convention's greatest omission."

Bartlett warned "Two very real dangers are present. The first and most obvious danger is that of exploitation under the thin disguise of development. The taking of Alaska's mineral resources without leaving some reasonable return for the support of Alaska governmental services and the use of all the people of Alaska will mean a betrayal in the administration of the people's wealth.

Bartlett further warned "that outside interests, determined to stifle any development in Alaska which might compete with their activities elsewhere, will attempt to acquire great areas of Alaska's public lands in order NOT to develop them until such time as, in their omnipotence and the pursuance of their own interests, they see fit. If large areas of Alaska's patrimony are turned over to such corporations the people of Alaska may be even more the losers than if the lands had been exploited."

In response, Alaska's delegates adopted the most comprehensive resource protection Resources Article in the nation. Article VIII, Section 1 — requires resources to be made available for the maximum use "consistent with the public interest." Section 2 — requires development and conservation (conservation meaning wise use) "for the maximum benefit of its people."

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Mooch wants to go on an adventureOk, Mooch. Here we are on the ice. It won't be here in a week.Mooch checks the ice-bound sailboatMooch climbs the hullStrider and Mooch want more adventureWill he go out beyond the shore?At least he will walk closely alongMooch doesn't want to be left behindMooch reaches his limitLooking down on collapsing iceA piece of wood, embedded. click on the pictureimages by PA

Candidate for Anchorage Mayor Eric Croft today picked up another endorsement from one of the mayoral candidates who did not make it into the run off election. Retired Anchorage Police Department Lieutenant Paul Honeman threw his support behind Croft at a press conference.

“Eric and I share a strong commitment to make Anchorage a safer city,” said Honeman. “I am endorsing Eric because he will make sure our city continues working to improve public safety for Anchorage residents.”

“I am honored to have Lt. Honeman’s support,” said Croft. “We are working together to make sure Anchorage residents know my focus will be on cutting waste in city government so we can invest in my top priorities: schools, public safety and reducing property taxes.

The endorsement was announced outside of West High School, where Honeman and Croft emphasized the importance of public safety initiatives that work to prevent crime, like the School Resource Officer program.

So, my friends, fellow Anchorage and Anchorage area progressive Alaska bloggers? When are YOU going to put pressure on the guy you so love - Walt Monegan - to endorse Eric Croft for Mayor of Anchorage? Second time I've asked.

Since Rich and Kevin McClear began the Anchorage-based KUDO-AM progressive talk experiment back around 2004, there have been many changes.

The McClears, with a lot of valuable radio experience in Alaska and elsewhere, turned local talk over to omnipresent Anchorage radio voice, Jack Frost. Though Frost was - and is - known mostly for his commercials, he gave the station its first local presence with strong local roots.

Soon, Frost was joined by Aaron Selbig, who then was editor of Insurgent 49, a web and print progressive outlet. Selbig was also then on KRUA, UAA's small FM station. Frost and Selbig's program, Frost and Fire, was the first good program there. Listenership began to increase.

Even then, many listeners complained about the poor signal strength. Since then, very little has been done to improve the signal, or to increase the station's transmitter power. Until that is done, no matter what format KUDO chooses, the station will gain little traction.

When Frost left Frost and Fire to run in the 2006 Anchorage mayoral contest, Selbig was given a chance to reorganize the station. Some believe that short period, with Camille Conte, Shannyn Moore and Selbig filling seven hours a day of local call-in programming, to have been KUDO's golden age. I'm one of them.

Since the terminations of Selbig, in early May, 2008, and Moore, later that year, the station has struggled in its goal of becoming less of a drain on IBEW, the owners. During this most recent iteration of management and programming, Conte ("CC") was honored by The Nation Magazine for her on-air community service, as one of 2008's "most valuable progressives."

When Sarah Palin stumbled onto the national stage, after her selection as John McCain's running-mate, everyone scrambled to figure out what was up with Alaska's governor. A lot of the lower-48 blogosphere (and the major media that followed its lead) obsessed about Palin's family life. But Anchorage radio host Camille Conte, who is universally known in Alaska as "CC," steered the discussion toward Troopergate--the scandal that proved Palin was not the reformer her supporters claimed but a Cheney-esque abuser of power. CC's daily "Cutting Edge" show on Anchorage's Air America affiliate, News-Talk 1080/KUDO: Alaska's Progressive Voice became required fare for journalists visiting the state--she had better access than anyone else to the key players, who trusted the veteran local host--and CC turned up on radio stations across the U.S. No one else contributed as much to 2008's Palintological studies.

This past winter, Conte was instrumental in directing the public eye to the emerging shortageson the lower Yukon River.

As sad as it is to see this wonderful progressive personality's platform at KUDO eliminated, it is yet sadder that the local media, such as the Anchorage Daily News, KTUU-TV or the Alaska Public Radio Network, have yet to acknowledge her important role in our community.

Some have been hard on Carey Carrigan for his role in the terminations at KUDO in 2008. Having worked in radio for a few years myself, and been through a lot of firings and reorganizations of somewhat marginal stations, I feel more sympathetic to Carey.

Of the KUDO radio personalities, he was probably the least dynamic in his presentations, with the exception of the McClears. Frost was more dynamic, but frequently told brazen lies. Carrigan's presentations sought to truthfully seek a constituency a bit more toward the center of the political spectrum than most programming there.

Listening this morning to KUDO's "The Best of Carey Carrigan" was interesting. I have to say, though, that listening to a replay of his show is almost as wan as being forced to watch a videotape of a Powerpoint presentation.

Shannyn Moore has gone on to become Alaska's most important progressive media personality, appearing often on television and radio. Her Huffington Post columns reach hundreds of thousands of readers outside of Alaska. Her new local radio show on KBYR, The Shannyn Moore Show, will gain a decent audience.

Aaron Selbig has moved to Homer, where he has become an award-winning journalist for he Homer Tribune.

I'm hoping that both Carrigan and Conte will find a new platform for their voices, their ideas, and for their followers.

Who knows - Andrew Halcro's KENI spot will be opening up very soon.....

But until KUDO fixes their signal problems, the station is doomed to have less influence in Alaska than the ideas presented deserve.

Yesterday's confirmation of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius to be U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services ends the search by the Obama administration for a competent person to head this agency at a time when so many issues under its purview are very important to the future well-being of our country and its people.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's squad of cheerleaders tried to stop the confirmation in its tracks. Who the heck do they think they are?

Erika Bolstad of McClatchywrites today from Washington, DC, that, "it's a ready-made online army for Palin to muster up if she so chooses. So far, she has not."

Bolstad goes on to include the blog Conservatives4Palin and Sarah Palin Radio in her quick look at what the Anchorage Daily News headline to her story calls "a Formidable Army on the Web."

What a load of crap! First of all, they lost. They had no impact on this nomination that can be discerned. The article fails to cite such an impact. Did they change a single Senator's vote?

The Mudflats, Just a Girl From Homer, Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis, The Immoral Minority, Alaska Real, Bent Alaska, The Alaska Report and Anonymous Bloggers, when put together, probably have far more visitors than all the Palin shrines in the world, including the ADN's.

Interest in Sarah Palin is rapidly declining nationally. During the fall campaign, as many as 20 Sarah Palin YouTubes were showing up per hour, day in, day out. Some of the more sympathetic videos were getting scores of thousands of hits. None competed in view counts with the hilarious ones, like the complete turkey video (now removed, but not before it was viewed almost 3,000,000 times!), or versions of the Sarkozy prank.

Now, though, Palin videos are coming in to YouTube at about ten or less per day. Most are anti-Palin.

With the poor showing the governor made during the 2009 legislative session beginning to sink in and the continuing erosion of GOP power in the U.S. Congress (Snowe and Collins next?), Palin's base will look more and more like the old Confederacy did in early 1862.

Monday, April 27, 2009

The line of members waiting to registerfor ballots and prizes is not the placefor eavesdropping. Too much music here,too many timbres and pitches interlaced,a choir in Carharts, jeans, or collared shirts.Phrases rise and fall: snowmachineson blocks for the summer, ash in the dirt,a volcanic gift to the gardens. Sometimesa song political emerges. “Taxes”is heard. “Common sense is all it is”someone bellows -- sharpening axesfor the real debate to come, perhaps.But mostly it's parents and children keepingtime,the popcorn music of waiting in line.

As the White House and U.S. Congress struggled last week with the dimensions of the emerging torture scandal, the American press ratcheted up their fear-mongering machinery. At least, while you watch this TPM TV YouTube, you can click on the bottom of the screen and sign the petition to appoint a special prosecutor into the torture:

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Saturday evening, the New York Post screwed up. They were putting material up for a Sunday front-pager called, "100 Days - 100 Mistakes." Not surprisingly for the Post, it castigated President Obama. As an attempt to carry the article's title, it failed.

It listed 100 mistakes its contributors claim President Obama will have made in his first 100 days in office. The set is a hodgepodge, though, and fails to document a lot of contentious claims made.

Hell - Even I could come up with 100 more interesting mistakes Obama has made.

In the Saturday evening version of the NYP article, item number 17 was listed as penned by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. For a few brief hours commenters at the NYP web site, the Conservatives4Palin site, and Ben Smith's niche at politico.com, believed that either Palin had written the piece, or that somebody had ghost-written it for her. The white-supremacist-linked site FreeRepublic's gushing praise of Palin was so embarrassing, they pulled the link.

Early Sunday, though, the article changed. Palin was no longer listed as author. It now appeared to have been written by conservative commentator, Meghan Clyne. Clyne, a Yale graduate, has written that, "I wrote my first column because I was enraged by the lack of patriotism displayed at Yale in the wake of September 11th."

Ben Smith and I both got emails from New York Post editor Steve Lynch, notifying us of the error, asking us to correct it. I modified my post, as did Smith.

Lynch claims that Palin never submitted an article for the series, and that the mixup occurred because he had confused Meghan Clyne with Meg Stapleton, the latter an employee of Sarah Palin. That is possibly true.

In our email exchange, Lynch seems to indicate Palin was asked for an article, that Lynch was in communication with Stapleton, and that - whatever the reasons might be that Lynch could have expected a Palin article - he never got one.

We probably will never know the real story. But for a few brief hours, thousands of Sarah Palin supporters saw the evidence they had always known would be there, once the media, the inept handlers, the White House basement political slime machine, the ankle-biting Alaska bloggers and ethics complaint filers, were kept at bay.

When these gullible people read the New York Post article yesterday, in their falsely great expectations, they were once again enraptured:

As I said on the open thread this is a major sarcastic shot across Obama's bow and significant that for the first time she brought up Obama's war room in 'undermining Michael Steele' but actually acknowledging she is fully aware of what is being done to her presently as well and also endorsing Michael Steele in the same breath.

Marvelous, just marvelous!

++++++++++

You Far-Leftist Extremist nutjobs are gonna be more angry than you've ever been when Palin turns out to be the next Margaret Thatcher...

++++++++++

Why is Governor Palin the only Republican who has the cajones to bitch slap Obama? Not that I mind, she does it oh so effectively.

++++++++++

I was just shocked cause I didn't even expect her to say anything. This is totally unexpected and WOW, she just whipped him like a Government mule..WOW..all I can say is U GO GIRL!!! Just donated another 25 bucks to her Alaska Defense fund just for schooling Obama

++++++++++

She is a genius! She gives a shout out to not only Steele, but also Limbaugh.

I don't think she is worried about ethics complaints...she knows she has plenty of money to counter attack them.

She will unite the Party. I can feel the shift as they all start looking to The Last Frontier and it's amazing Governor.

++++++++++

Talent will always win out in the long run. Isn't it ironic that she wrote this on the same day of the NFL draft?

Do you think if Sarah was a NFL player she would have been the number one draft pick today?

++++++++++

What Sarah has is a talent that few politicians possess: to know what the average voter thinks and to talk and write in those terms but being exquisitely cogent and eloquent at the same time without coming across as an egghead.

What a talent!

++++++++++

Obama...duh...uh...the man can't talk without the Mr. Tele. Verbally Clinton and Palin can run him in circles! He has to read it or it just doesn't come out. In 100 days he has destroyed the economy and put us in debt Trillions! He is the OWNER of this economy, he needs to stop pointing his skinny finger. Obama is not cut out for this job and it is a shame that some uninformed Americans didn't know this! What a shame.

++++++++++

The Akhanitsa, is pulling back the bow and firing volley after volley, showing command of the issues, but all with her trademark wit and charm. At a certain point, she's figured she's already a target, to give it all she's got. I really didn't expect this so soon, but it does validate the hopes we've had for her all these many months.

++++++++++

WOW!!!!LOVE it. Haha. Smackdown. Yes, thank goodness Sarah's not completely out of the national political scene. She's staying in Alaska but using her pen to continue to be a player in DC. SWEET.

My favorite phrase was puppies and rainbows-- unless I'm out of the loop, I'm guessing Obama didn't exactly say that. But we who did not fall for that koolaid love to talk about unicorns, cupcakes and puppies as the theme of that illusive "Hope and Change" slogan.

++++++++++

Sarah calls it like it is. SARAH!! :)

this one will make the libs explode

++++++++++

Uh, oh. I'd better move away from these folks.

Anyway, once they realized the NYP cite to Palin was a mistake, the party ended. Or, at least politico.com ended their thread once Smith understood what Lynch's email meant. The other sites all dealt with it in their own ways. Like Free Republic, that just disappeared the thread.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

The conservative, sensationalist New York Post came out Saturday with an article titled, 100 Days, 100 Mistakes. Prominent conservatives contributed here and there, mixed in with items the editors added in.

Here is what the Post published on Saturday as Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's contribution:

17. SARAH PALIN ON: "I WON" AND THE DEATH OF BIPARTISANSHIP

"Obama soared to victory on the hopeful promise of a new era of bipartisanship. During his inaugural address he even promised an 'end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.'

"Too bad it took all of three days for the promise to ring hollow.

"Start with Obama's big meeting with top congressional leaders on his signature legislation -- the stimulus -- on the Friday after his inauguration. Listening to Republican concerns about overspending was a nice gesture -- until he shut down any hopes of real dialogue by crassly telling Republican leaders: 'I won.' Even the White House's leaking of the comment was a slap at the Republican leadership, who'd expected Obama to adhere to the custom of keeping private meetings with congressional leadership, well, private.

"It's only gone downhill from there. The stimulus included zero Republican recommendations, and failed to get a single House Republican vote.

"It's not just the tactic of using Republicans for bipartisan photo-ops, and then cutting them loose before partisan decisions, that irks Obama's opponents. The new president wasted no time rushing forward with policies and legislation guaranteed to drive Republicans nuts. The first bill he signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act -- a partisan hot-button that drew all of eight Republican supporters in the entire Congress. Then there was the swift reversal of Bush policies on abortion and embryonic-stem-cell research -- issues dear to the Republican base.

"And when Obama and the Democrats in Congress took up SCHIP -- the children's health-insurance bill that Republicans say vastly expands government's role in health care -- they had an easy chance for real bipartisanship. After all, the bill had been hashed out in the previous Congress, and a bipartisan accord was reached before President Bush responded with a veto. Did the Obama team push for the compromise version in the 111th Congress? Nope. They went back to the drawing board, ramming through the Democrats' dream version.

"Of course, the lack of bipartisanship isn't limited to Capitol Hill. Obama has taken gratuitous swipes at the Republicans who recently decamped Washington, blaming President Bush for everything from the economy and the war to the lack of sufficient puppies and rainbows. And who could forget the Rush Limbaugh flap -- in which Obama's top advisers, including chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, orchestrated a public relations campaign meant to undermine the Republican National Committee chairman, Michael Steele, by framing talk-radio personality Limbaugh as the real head of the Republican Party.

"For now, Obama's back-pedal on the bipartisanship promise just makes him look insincere. But the real consequences of the mistake will be felt soon enough. As Presidents Bush and Clinton could tell him, congressional majorities do change -- and at some point, Obama will need Republicans on his side. He'd be smart to spend his second 100 days making up for the serious snubs of his first."

-- Sarah Palin is the governor of Alaska

Update continued: Early Sunday morning the NY Post changed this entry to the article. It is now attributed to Meghan Clyne. What Progressive Alaska posted above on Saturday was cut and pasted from the late Saturday NYP article cited at the top.

From the comments, it can be seen that most here didn't buy the article as having been penned by Palin. Neither did I. I thought it was ghost-written. But, as far as I can tell, the NYP has yet to explain how or why this happened. I'll update again, should more information come out.

I edit the Sunday opinion section of The New York Post and made a big mistake -- I mixed up e-mails and ended up posting something under Sarah Palin's byline that was not from her (I thought it was coming from a different address). We have corrected it on our Web site but I noticed you put it on your blog and if you could either remove or correct it too I would be obliged.

Thanks, Steve

++++++++++++++++++

Dear Mr. Lynch,

Thank you for bringing attention to your error. I'm in the process of updating the post right now. The update includes your earlier email to politico.com's Ben Smith.

Your email to Smith raises a couple of questions:

1) How did it come about that Stapleton and Clyne were confused with each other?

2) Clyne's contribution to 100-100 was initially attributed to Gov. Sarah Palin. Now that the correction has been made, another obvious question to me is - was Palin supposed to contribute a piece to 100-100, and then did not? Was Stapleton involved in any content for 100-100, or for another piece you are now editing?

Warmest regards,Philip Munger

Update 3: Another email from NYP editor Steve Lynch:

They were confused simply because I had written e-mails to a number of conservatives asking them to submit. Meghan Clyne wrote back to me, I thought it was Meghan Stapleton passing along a piece (it was a very dumb mistake). Palin never submitted a piece.

I am very grateful to have been involved in this battle, and I have met some incredible people:

Our MEA linemen, and their families, are amazing. Hearing their stories has helped me appreciate what they endure to keep our lights on. Next time there is an outage during a 50mph blow, with temperatures dipping below -20, think of the linemen out there searching for and fixing the problem, and say a silent "thank you."

And then thank the warehouse and supply people and the whole system at MEA, because if there is a break in this system, when they are forced to work under inept supervision, as they have had to since Carmony took over, things fall apart: linemen get hurt, houses go up in flames, and outages last longer than our freezers can hold our food.

Fortunately for all of us, they and we now have the ear of the Board. Thank you Lois, Kit, Janet, Katie and Peter for your desire to remain on this Board.

Thank you, Kevin Brown, for your understanding of the issues at stake, for your direction, for staying on top of it all. Thank you, All, for all your work. This was, indeed, a unified effort! Whether you were making signs, putting up and maintaining signs (and keeping up with the sign thieves!), waving signs (at random times; what a terrific strategy, which started weeks ago!), making calls, composing and writing letters to the editor (these were so effective this time, I believe), emailing, or talking it up to all who would listen, every effort was needed and counted.

We all had our part, and we all need to pat ourselves on the back.

Through all the dirty tricks, Karl Rove style, we fought the mighty battle! We slew the dragon!

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin thinks that when opponents of her policies, nominees or actions mobilize effectively, that this means some sort of process has been derailed or manipulated. Here's from her reaction to the the successful battle against Wayne Anthony Ross' nomination to be Alaska Attorney General:

I’m surprised that legislators in this case really did not seem to represent their constituents and allowed themselves to be swayed by side issues.

Uh, members of the public who came forward with, uh, you know, the blogosphere, and the, in the e-mails back and forth, uh, and claiming that Mr. Ross did this or did that, and, uh, that he very easily and accurately refuted the lies told about him but, uh, you know, uh, once a bell is rung, it is really tough to unring the bell. Very unfortunate and unfair for any public official, anybody, to have lies told about them. It's sometimes tough to correct those lies in a timely manner, and the damage is already done.

Alaska's progressive bloggers, who don't give ourselves nearly as much credit as Palin seems to, have been active this past week. On many issues. I guess paralyzing state government is hard work.

Anonymous bloggers is getting better every week, as more community activists from rural Alaska provide material. Ann Strongheart reported yesterday that Nunam Iqua's community fuel tanks have run dry, for the first time ever. Ann states:

this is the first time we have run out of stove oil before winter was over, usually we run out of gas.

“I’d rather tell the guy, go out there and cut your own wood or do something for yourself. … I don’t know how many of the 200-plus villages have a wood supply within a rock toss, but there’s a lot of them because I’ve been to a lot of them,” he said.

Residents of rural Alaska were interested to note that Rep. Mike Kelly (R) from Fairbanks (who won the election by one vote), is irritated with the idea of appropriating state energy assistance money to rural Alaska and suggested that people shouldn’t rely on state aid, but instead should “cut wood.”

If you are picturing the rural villages of Western Alaska with dwellings nestled among stands of large hardwood trees and dense foliage, you may now disavow yourself of that supposition. In places like Emmonak, which has a few scrubby alders, and vast areas of flat swampiness as far as the eye can see, they wait for flooding to carry logs down the river sometimes. Otherwise, it’s a long labor intensive trip via fuel powered snowmachine, lots of manual labor, and a bunch of time using a fuel powered chainsaw to get the wood, which has to be hauled for long distances by sled, ready to use. So all this wood ends up with a huge carbon footprint, lots of time, and needs a strong healthy person on the working end.

He could have written his constituents about what he's doing to support the Valley. He could have told us how hard he was working for public transportation. He said in the campaign that he would support a regional transit authority to help connect Anchorage and Palmer. We haven't heard a peep from on that subject sense.

There's nothing in this message to his constituents about how hard he was working to find matching funds for the Farmland Trust. (In one of our television debates during the campaign, it became clear that he didn't even know what the Farmland Trust was.)

There's nothing here about supporting our schools, building and maintaining our roads, stimulating our economy, maintaining a livable wage. In other words, he had nothing to say about the meat and potato issues facing people of all ages, races and income levels in our district.

The only thing he thought worthy of talking about was a publicity stunt organized by national TV pundits and astroturf lobbyists with no healthy connection to our state.

By the way, Mr. Gatto's district received the lowest per capita funding in this year's budget in Alaska.

Andrew Halcro appears to be getting ready to announce he's a candidate for Governor. I'm not sure whether he will try as a Republican, or as an Independent. He's getting ready to close down his blog. Not listed here as progressive, it is, in the eyes of many, Alaska's most prestigious longtime web log.

The combination of Andrew's blog and his always courteous, generous treatment of reasoned guests on his KBYR radio program, have had a tremendous impact on Alaska media and political discourse these past eight months -- months that have been so different from any preceding time in Alaska.

Progressive Alaska is adding Wesley Loy's new blog, Deckboss, to the Important Alaska Sites - Not Necessarily Progressive category. Wes has reprinted the ADF&G assessment for the Yukon River salmon return, that just came out. There will be no Yukon River commercial season in 2009. Meanwhile, the Bering Sea pirates will continue to be able to dine on steak and lobster imported from tens of thousands of miles away, being filmed like they're some kind of heroes, as they discard tens of thousands of valuable fish over the sides, to rot on the sea floor.

Friday, April 24, 2009

(Late summer, 2008: Greenpeace spy Alaska Rep. Les Gara (D - Anchorage) is sneaking up an alley in downtown Anchorage. He's suspected of having a thumbdrive holding gigabytes of info on a secret leftwing blogger environmentalist plot to turn the world over the the UN -- and George Soros. The drive includes details of a plan to hide a new secret UN training facility in northwest Alaska.

Special agents Meg Stapleton and Ed O'Callaghan reach out from behind a crate full of American flags, and brusquely force Gara to the pavement.

Gara shakes his head, laughing, "These guys are wackier than I thought."Interlude:

Call:

This latest complaint was systematically spread beforehand on leftist blogs, who even gave "head ups" on this. This isn't the work of some loners, but a DNC operation.

Response:

It would be great to connect this to Axelrod but he is very skilled. Has had years experience covering his tracks.

Call:

I'd say his tracks are pretty covered on this. The complaints are always filed by obscure bloggers and low level Alaska rats. We need to see this through and connect the dots.

Response:

This is a too well orchestrated (and financed) campaign, not to be from high up the democrat party. Just look at Kim Elton... the anklebiter of the "troopergate" circus. He got promoted by Obama for his political hatchet job.

Team Obama's smell is all over this.

Also I wouldn't give Axelrod too much credit for his "intelligence". Just read his latest idiotic remarks: Axelrod: Anti-Americanism now 'not cool'

Team Obama is trembling before Palin and desperately try to stop her by a merciless saturation bombing.

Real Story?

(Spring 2009): Emerging from a programming indoctrination inside of a Lenin statue in Seattle, are two Alaska minions of Obama Chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel. They're accompanied by their George Soros-employed control officers.

They're on their way back to Alaska, to systematically spread the Al Gore socialist message. They've been trained how to text, twitter, post YouTubes, and infiltrate patriotic events. The person taking the picture is known as agent TEH.

But, unknown to these agents, Al Gore has had implants put into them, so that if they disobey ---- uh, oh...

It is an honor to introduce myself and KXLJ Radio 1330AM, Juneau's new progressive talk station. At last, the capital city now has a voice that stands up for human rights, the environment, access to education, affordable health care, and all of the other issues that we care so deeply about and are fighting for.

We currently broadcast Air America Radio five days a week, and are beginning to produce local content on issues within the state. Last week I broadcasted a series of interviews on HB 9, the death penalty bill that was defeated last week.

Next week I will be airing a series of interviews on military sonar testing and its dangerous effects on marine wildlife in Southeast Alaska. I am interviewing a marine biologist from Sitka who is following the issue over there, where the Navy has blockaded an island to themselves and dead marine mammals have been washing ashore.

I'm also producing video content from time to time, check out this YouTube video of a protest that took place after governor Palin announced her refusal to accept federal money to support arts and education in Alaska.

There is a lot of exciting programming and movement building coming down the pike, and I'd love to be in touch with all of you about my ideas, and I especially want to hear some of YOUR ideas.

You can call our listener line at 796-1330 anytime and leave a message for me and I will return your call (or put it on the air if you'd like!), or you can always send an e-mail to info [[at]] kxljradio [[dot]] com.

We've invested serious money into getting this radio station off the ground, it's taken two long years to finally get a clean signal, and in this intense economic climate we need all the listeners and support possible. Right now we're hiring a sales manager in Juneau to reach out to businesses across the state who want to advertise with us. Any advice or referrals you can give would be especially helpful.

This was the scene last winter at Colony High School at the annual meeting of Matanuska Electrical Association:At that meeting and vote count, a new, progressive board of directors was elected. This year, after several attempts by the old guard to overturn the verdict of the MEA voters, we will have a chance to consolidate that victory for common sense and long-term survival of the utility as a co-op. Please come to the meeting.

Corey Cogdell, a 2008 Olympic Bronze Medalist in Women's Trap, will be MEA's guest speaker. The doors open at 12:30 p.m. Registration opens at 1 p.m. and closes at 3 p.m. and the meeting begins at 2 p.m. Palmer High School.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Alaska's Gov. Sarah Palin created an alternative universe this January, that conjured an image of herself as victim of "Bored, anonymous, pathetic bloggers who lie." She was never able to cite the lie.

And early this week, Palin credited these same pesky bloggers with spreading lies that led to the defeat of her nominee for Attorney General. To illustrate her point, she once again failed to cite the lie she believed we had created.

What we have done, though, must annoy her. We have challenged her to the point that she can no longer claim the mantle she once wore as an "ethics reformer."

Between Palin's initial complaint and this week, Alaska bloggers have helped stir interest in the food and fuel crisis in villages on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, watched over her administration's role in the North Pacific Management Council's Bering Sea Chinook Salmon Bycatch deliberations, filed ethics complaints against the governor, and played a key role in the defeat of Wayne Anthony Ross, her nominee for Alaska Attorney General.